Sabre Wulf

Listen to this article
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the 1984 video game. For the Game Boy Advance game, see Sabre Wulf (2004 video game). For the Killer Instinct character, see List of Killer Instinct characters.

Sabre Wulf
turn-based two-player

Sabre Wulf is an

connected screens
by touching the border where one screen ends and another begins. Each screen is filled with colourful flora, enemies that spawn at random, and occasional collectibles.

Ultimate released the game for the ZX Spectrum at an above-average price to combat piracy. Its premium product packaging became a company standard. The developers had finished Sabre Wulf's sequels in advance of its release but—in keeping with their penchant for secrecy—chose to withhold them for marketing purposes. The sequels were swiftly released later that year. Ultimate hired outside developers to

port Sabre Wulf to other computing platforms: the BBC Micro, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. The game was later featured in compilations including the 2015 retrospective of games by Ultimate and its successor, Rare
.

Several gaming publications recommended the game, and Crash magazine readers named it the "Best Maze Game" of 1984. Sabre Wulf was a bestseller and a financial success. Though its labyrinthine gameplay was similar to that of Ultimate's previous release, reviewers preferred Sabre Wulf. They further noted its difficult gameplay and lauded its graphics. Game journalists remember Sabre Wulf among the Spectrum's best releases, and for starting the Sabreman series.

Gameplay

Atop a black background, dense and bright plant foliage mark borders around two horizontal paths. In the top path, drawn in black (negative) space, a blue wolf faces a pith-helmeted person drawn in white (Sabreman). In the bottom row, a yellow spider, approaches a blob of graphical collisions. Bordering the bottom of the screenshot are purple and white mountains, and atop the screen are "1UP", "2UP", and "HI" with numbers indicating the players' and high scores.
Sabreman (top right) faces the Wulf in his path (top left) in one of the 256 screens that compose Sabre Wulf's maze. An enemy spider shows in the lower path.

In Sabre Wulf, the player guides the

flip-screens[6] such that the player views one static tile of the maze's grid at a time. For example, when Sabreman reaches the left edge of one screen, he continues the maze at the right edge of the next screen.[6]

The game opens to music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.[7] Its tiled maze contains 256 screens[1] and is drawn in a 16 by 16 grid.[5] The maze's paths are bordered by tropical flora,[8] populated with attacking enemies and, on its outskirts, surrounded by mountains.[9] Apart from the jungle, the game's maze also includes several lakes.[9] The player swings Sabreman's sabre[5] with the push of the joystick's fire button[6] to defeat enemies that spawn in random on-screen locations.[5] When the player idles too long in the same screen, an indestructible bushfire appears to pursue Sabreman.[1][10] Enemies include spiders, scorpions, snakes, bats,[6] indigenous people, sleeping hippos, and a fast wolf (the titular Sabre Wulf[1]).[9] Some enemies are killed, others flee when hit, while the wolf, cave guardian, and bushfire are unaffected by the sabre.[5]

The player does not receive any explicit guidance on how to play and is left to decipher the game's objectives through trial and error.

two-player mode in which players take turns controlling their own Sabreman.[1]

Development

A black, rectangular box with rounded sides. A top panel reads, in raised lettering and a robotic typeface, "sinclair", and below that, in modern, white lettering, "ZX Spectrum". A full QWERTY keyboard with Chiclet buttons, full number set, and buttons for Enter, Caps Shift, and Space. Each of the buttons has alternative text in green and red lettering nearby, to access other functions when the corresponding modifier key is pressed. A red, yellow, green, and blue rainbow streak shows in the right corner, but the rest of the machine is black.
ZX Spectrum

The developer of Sabre Wulf,

isometric platformer format.[17]

Ultimate released Sabre Wulf for the ZX Spectrum in 1984

Firebird.[20] Sabre Wulf later appeared in the 1985 compilation They Sold a Million, a collection of Spectrum games that had together sold a million units.[21][22] When the compilation was released for the Amstrad CPC, Sabre Wulf was converted for the platform and eventually released in a standalone edition. Sabre Wulf also appeared alongside Underwurlde, its sequel, in a Commodore 64 pack,[20] and in the August 2015 Xbox One compilation of 30 Ultimate and Rare titles, Rare Replay.[23]

Reception

Reviewers appreciated the game's graphics and found its gameplay similar to Ultimate's previous game, Atic Atac—particularly in its opening sequence and maze format—but preferred Sabre Wulf.[28] Critics also noted the game's difficulty and above-average pricing.[30] Sabre Wulf was a selected recommendation in Crash (July 1984),[11] Personal Computer Games (August 1984),[8] and Popular Computing Weekly (June 1984).[29] The game was named "Best Maze Game" in the 1984 Crash Readers Awards.[27] Ultimate's new pricing strategy was a success[1] and Sabre Wulf topped the sales chart in the video game format.[13] While Retro Gamer reported that Sabre Wulf broke the company's sales records,[1] Computer and Video Games (CVG) said that the release underperformed prior games, with only 30,000 copies sold by December 1984.[31] Eurogamer later reported that 350,000 units were sold in total.[7]

Crash confirmed rumours that the game was similar to Atic Atac, but declared Sabre Wulf the better and predicted that they would have similar legacies.

text adventures identical.[5]

Critics had high praise for the colourful and detailed graphics and animations.

hack-and-slash gameplay style.[25] A Crash reviewer called the game "a Software Masterpiece".[9] The magazine received more mail in praise of Sabre Wulf in 1984 than for any other game[27] and, a year later, repeated that Sabre Wulf was among the top games available for the Spectrum, adding that the game did not feel antiquated.[5] CVG's Commodore 64 review, two years after the original release, approved of the port and said that the game remained a classic.[24]

Reviewers complained of the game's high price, which was nearly double the average.[9][25] Crash wondered if the cost might lead to more piracy.[9] Critics also noted a bug in two-player mode,[9] repeat screens from elsewhere in the maze,[8] and the frustratingly narrow window in which sabre swings register as enemy hits.[6] CVG recommended drawing a map of the maze, without which it was easy to get lost.[24] While Sabre Wulf had some flicker issues, said Sinclair User, the game altogether met Ultimate's high quality benchmarks.[25]

A retrospective review from Retro Gamer reduced Sabre Wulf to "an interactive maze" packed with colour and hack-and-slash gameplay.[1] The magazine likened the game's colour choice and setting to what the magazine considered Ultimate's best arcade game, Dingo (1983), and lamented Sabreman's inability to hit enemies above or below him.[32] Eurogamer's Peter Parrish retrospectively found the game's collision detection imprecise as well.[7] In The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, Simon Niedenthal used Sabre Wulf as an example of games that maximised the limited colour palette of 8-bit computers. He described its colours as "glow(ing) like stained glass, and the effects of color [sic] purity are enhanced by contrast with the black background".[33]

Legacy

Players and game journalists consider the game among the Spectrum's best.

Sabrewulf. Star Fox Adventures had at one point in development a main character called Sabre the wolf.[39] Retro Gamer considered Sabreman's recurring appearance to be proof of Rare's interest in the character and series.[40]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hunt 2010, p. 27.
  2. ^ Crash 1984, pp. 62–36.
  3. ^ a b c d Crash 1984, pp. 62–63.
  4. ^ This ACG Amulet[3] is named for Ultimate Play the Game, the developer's former name.[1]
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Crash 1985b.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Computer and Video Games 1984a.
  7. ^ a b c d Parrish 2007.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Anderson 1984.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Crash 1984, p. 62.
  10. ^ Holman 1984, p. 39.
  11. ^ a b c Crash 1984, p. 63.
  12. ^ Kean 1988, p. 35.
  13. ^ a b c d e Carroll 2012, p. 24.
  14. ^ a b Carroll 2012, p. 25.
  15. ^ a b Carroll 2014, p. 21.
  16. ^ a b c d Hunt 2010, p. 28.
  17. ^ Gillen 2010.
  18. ^ Hunt 2010, p. 28–29.
  19. ^ Carroll 2012, p. 22.
  20. ^ a b Carroll 2012, p. 27.
  21. ^ Computer and Video Games 1985.
  22. ^ Computer Gamer 1985.
  23. ^ McWhertor 2015.
  24. ^ a b c Computer and Video Games 1986.
  25. ^ a b c d e f Sinclair User 1984.
  26. ^ a b Watson 1984.
  27. ^ a b c d Crash 1985a.
  28. ^ Reviewers who likened Sabre Wulf's gameplay to Atic Atac include Computer and Video Games Crash, Sinclair User, ZX Computing, and in retrospect, Retro Gamer.[6][16][3][25][26][27] Computer and Video Games and Personal Computer Games noted similarities in their opening sequences,[6][8] and Crash and Retro Gamer noted similarities in their maze format.[9][16] Personal Computer Games and Crash stated preferences for Sabre Wulf.[8][3]
  29. ^ a b c d Popular Computing Weekly 1984.
  30. ^ Computer and Video Games and Popular Computing Weekly wrote on the game's difficulty,[6][29] and Computer and Video Games, Crash, Popular Computing Weekly, and Sinclair User wrote on the game's above-average pricing.[6][9][25][27][29]
  31. ^ Computer and Video Games 1984b.
  32. ^ Hunt 2010, p. 25.
  33. ^ Niedenthal 2013, p. 68.
  34. ^ Your Sinclair 1993, p. 11.
  35. ^ Whitehead 2004.
  36. ^ Hunt 2010, p. 30.
  37. ^ Hunt 2010, pp. 30–31.
  38. ^ Hunt 2010, p. 26.
  39. ^ Bayliss 2021.
  40. ^ Hunt 2010, p. 31.

References

External links

Listen to this article (15 minutes)
Spoken Wikipedia icon
Audio help · More spoken articles
)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sabre_Wulf&oldid=1193371678"